• Question: Why do smells conjure such vivid memories?

    Asked by anon-188124 to Pizza Ka Yee, Paul, Nadine, Alex on 14 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Nadine Mirza

      Nadine Mirza answered on 14 Nov 2018:

      So the reason smells lead to such clear and vivid memories is literally because of how our body, specifically our nose and brain have been structured. When we inhale a smell, it is first processed by the olfactory bulb which starts in our nose and goes all the way to under our brain. This bulb has an absolutely direct connection to the hippocampus and the amygdala- the two parts of the brain that have the strongest relation and responsibility of memory and emotion respectively. This direct pathway means that when we inhale a smell we’ve smelt before it simultaneously sets off our memories and our emotions and a mix of the two can help them trigger more information about each other.

    • Photo: Paul Matusz

      Paul Matusz answered on 15 Nov 2018:

      Hi CrunchyCurry,

      Another great question – as Nadine said it’s because of the structure. But we don’t know why we developed like that (and other mammals). It may be because smell is very indicative of whether something is edible or not – and sometimes you might have had to make that decision fast – like grab a fruit very fast, before you get noticed by a predator.

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